Adjust Brake Lights??

NO.

You'll have to replace the brake light switch(es). This is not a particularly "fun" job.

Your car uses (2) 3-prong switches.

Speedy Jim

Thanks, Jim ... I was afraid of that.

If I'm correct, the switches are located on the master cylinder? Shouldn't be too tough to get to for a 6', 240lb. guy!!!

Larry

what's got your weight or size to do with it? it's only your arm the one that will reach for them. is it a STD or a Super?

Karls

Please dont! The brake lights are coming on *when* you are braking, not just when you are 'covering' the brake pedal, like they do on modern vehicles.

I am firmly convinced that this design difference in brake light actuation is responsible for more of a traffic problem than any other single car design 'feature'! Think about it: you're in a traffic situation traveling at constant speed, and suddenly for no apparent reason the car ahead of you's brake lights come on! Now you can't tell immediately if the vehicle ahead of you is actually slowing down or merely not accelerating/maintaining speed because the driver took their foot off the accelerator and is "covering" their brake. Not actually applying brakes (yet?), but merely taking the brake pedal off the pedal stop (which is how many modern car's actuate their brake lights).

But you can't tell, can you? All you can tell is that the car ahead of you's brake lights just came on. Consequently, *you* are now virtually forced to also at least 'cover' your brakes, causing your brake lights to come on! (iff you have a modern car whose brake lights come on upon touching the brake pedal.), because you can't tell if the car ahead of you is going to be slowing or stopping, or if they are just in love with their brake pedal and felt like caressing it a little!

Now repeat for every car in the traffic line! ICK! Suddenly *everyone* has to slow down, because the car ahead of them is threatening to slow down or stop.

TRAFFIC PROBLEM!

Sorry, this is just a pet peeve of mine, after driving airc VW's exclusively for more than 20 of my driving years. ;-)

John Kuthe...

Good point, maybe we should get rid of brakes on cars all together :-) , I'll bet that would get rid of allot of traffic problems. Maybe not in the short term but give it some time, soon all the cars will be gone.

amen brother, mine too

Maybe we need stop light-type fixtures for the rear end of our cars.

It glows green if the driver's foot is not on the brake, and flips to yellow when his foot contacts the pedal. Then once pad/shoe actually hits the disc/drum it turns red.

;)

These are all valid points, but since I started the thread .. I'll butt back in. I drive in heavy commute traffic to and from work every day. It concerns me that the brake lights don't come on as I'm braking moderately ... that's all. It is very obvious that they're not working properly, and as Speedy Jim suggested, I'll try replacing the switches.

Larry

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:41:54 GMT, "Larry St. Regis" ran around screaming and yelling:

Larry it is very common problem...the switches are pressure activated and *should* connect power to the brakelights as soon as you push the pedal(after the small amount of freeplay is taken up)....the switches don't last long these days(poor quality?) and it is much more dangerous to have brake lights that don't come on when you are breaking slightly than it is to have the brake ligts come on immediately(reguardless of who's ass gets chapped by the lights coming on for light pressure) replace them and plan on it again in about a year or two if this is a daily driver... JT

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:02:24 GMT, John Kuthe ran around screaming and yelling:

sorry John, but "covering" the brake doesn't require anyone to push the pedal, if they are pushing on the brake and the lights come on they are indeed slowing down...the only question is how fast are they slowing down...but a brakelight will never tell you that other than how fast it gets closer...the brakelights are not what is the problem here(concerning your "pet peeve" it is your thinking... J

.......................I haven't bought anything from anyone other than Aircooled.Net for a long time but if I really really wanted to bite the bullet and get a pair of German 3-pronged brake switches (new) and if I didn't mind paying $76 +shipping for two of them, I'd go here:

...............For me, It would be better to look around for some good used ones rather than pay that much for switches that ought to cost about $20 per pair.

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 01:01:03 GMT, "Ilambert" ran around screaming and yelling:

no need to tell me, im with you there... J

...........I like to know whether the driver in front of me is nervously/stupidly touching his/her brake pedal without actually wanting to use their brakes. It tells me whether I ought to consider dropping back a little further or if I should try passing and then getting away. If you only had brake lights coming on when they were actually trying to decelerate, this important information would no longer be there to help me judge what kind of driver is sharing the road with me up ahead.

...........The REAL problem is that some drivers don't know how to keep their foot off of the brake pedal until they've actually decided to use their brakes. Given that this is true, I prefer that they continue warning me that they need to be watched closely. Just my opinion.

What we need are TRUE indications of what the car in front of us is doing. No lights for steady speed. Green for acceleration, yellow for coasting or for slight deceleration as when the driver lifts their foot off the acclerator, and red for rapid decleration. The indicator should be based on an accelerometer, not the gas pedal or brake pedal. Accelerometers are getting cheaper all the time, it's feasable.

Best system would be to take the decision away from the human. Have the car adjust it's speed to the conditions and congestion on the road. That's a few years away, but it would let MORE vehicles use the road instead of relying on the slowest reflexes of the worse driver to determine the amount of cars a road can handle.

Tim Rogers wrote:

..........................So lets put a big LED array on the back of every vehicle so that there are so many blinking lights in a line of traffic that old gomers like me can't figure out whether he should pull over or even leave the house in the first place.

..........Seriously........I made a personal decision about 15 years ago to move to an area where there aren't any traffic issues after having lived in large urban 'ant hills' for most of my adult life. It's what works for me.

I think we should just install cameras on our feet and put a lcd on the back end for the guy behind us to see where our foot is..................Yeah,,,,,,,,,,,,,Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh,...........That's the ticket!

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Yup - the contacts inside burn up (they arc and oxidise)! I had a set that only lasted 3 weeks. I will *hopefully* put up an article about this when I get the time - I have some of it done as of right now. It will expose the reason(s) behind the failing switches (i've pulled apart a half dozen already). The fix involves adding a capacitor, diode, and a relay into the system...... I'm at about 5 months right now with the mod - so far so good . 5 months doesnt sound like a long time, but that is the longest time to date I have gotten out of braz switches.

I actually fitted a microswitch to the base of the pedal, just so I could make the lights come on without braking - sometimes you need to warn traffic behind that the traffic ahead is slowing down, but you don't need to brake yet - You need to remember that 90% of drivers are dumb as shit and should have their licence revoked. I always watch two cars ahead, but the guy behind me doesn't!

I also think if you aren't braking, your foot shouldn't be *touching" the pedal - if you are covering the pedal, you are not yet planning to slow down, but are being cautious... so don't make the brakes drag when you don't need to :-)

Allan :-)